Another Life, Another Chance
by Wolyafa
Summary: Naruto isn't an idiot. In fact, he isn't what most people think he is. Is there a reason for this? Vague Tales of Phantasia Naruto crossover.
1. Chapter 1

Title – Another life. Another chance.

By - Wolyafa

Summary – Naruto isn't an idiot. In fact, he isn't what most people think he is. Is there a reason for this? Vague Tales of Phantasia/Naruto crossover.

Disclaimer - I own neither Naruto nor Tales of Phantasia.

* * *

Dhaos, King of Demons, savior of his people, fought his last battle this day. 

Namikaze Minato, Yondaime Hokage, loving husband and father, also savior of his people, likewise fought his last.

* * *

"You can't be serious!", the man called out to the wizard before him. Growling to himself, he threw back the Albane swordsman and rushed towards this latest threat. 

The chance to interrupt the casting never came however, as by the time he reached the man, the spell had completed. "Indignation!" 'The name of this devastating power?' Dhaos thought to himself even as the ethereal lightning crashed down upon him... 'The name was something so ridiculous?' he screamed in pain even as he laughed in his mind at the stupidity of it all. He had been unable to time travel amidst the 'abounding light of heaven', as the wizard had called it.

Dhaos frowned as he fell to his knees, mere feet from his prey. "If I die..." he whispered, just loud enough for the half-elf to hear him, "If I die, my people will--"

Edward D. Morrison, the half-elf wizard who had given the final blow to the Dark King, smiled softly as he interrupted. "Your people will adapt," a hand was offered. "As all people do, Mana or no." Dhaos took the hand and stood shakily, being lead to the throne room's balcony. The act between the two had shocked the three humans present. They were ignored.

Below the balcony one could see the plains of Valhalla clearly. The very plains his adopted people, the Demons were being slaughtered upon. Dhaos knew he had lost the battle, and so too had the creatures he had adopted to rule. He sighed softly, looking down at his hands which even now had started to fade. He body was dying.

"You know why I did this.", muttered the King, not even looking at the man next to him. "Humans are killing this world, as my people had my own." He glanced sideways to the wizard. Under other circumstances, they could have been friends. He was sure of it.

"The king of Midgard doesn't seem to care." was the reply, "He knows he's damning us, but he doesn't stop. Even if you had twice the army, nothing could have kept this from happening so long as he lives."

Dhaos laughed as his body faded from existence. 'Maybe so,' he thought, 'But I've always believed things could change for the better.'

With a sound not unlike the chime of bells, the Demon King had died, and his allies were drawn back into their own world. Edward sighed, he was making a habit of doing so as of late; and walked back to his three companions, who were waiting for an explanation of his actions. He motioned for them to sit down, sighing yet again as he heard the cheers of the humans. Slowly, he told the tale of Dhaos the savior, not the evil King of Demons, who had been killed before he could complete his mission.

* * *

Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage and strongest shinobi in the elemental country of fire, wept softly from atop the toad boss Gamabunta. His wife had just died giving birth to his son, one Uzumaki Naruto. He knew he shouldn't cry in front of the child, but he couldn't help it. He was leaving the boy with no one, and if his assumptions about the villagers were correct, he was leaving the boy to die as well. 

He jumped slightly as he heard Gamabunta talk, unconsciously tightening his grip on the bundle of cloth in his arms. **"You ready?"**

"Yes.", he looked at the nine-tailed fox a mere stone's throw ahead of him. The fox had stopped his assault and turned to look at him a moment ago. His shinobi taking this time to abandon the fight and station themselves behind the giant toad to rest. The Yondaime looked grimly at the fox, and began to form one-handed seals, chanting as he did so.

**"Pitiful."** spoke the fox, **"A human and a frog is all this place has left?"**, It chuckled darkly and thrust forward, jaws wide-open.

Minato lowered himself to one knee even as the beast was halted in mid-air. He set his son on the head of his boss, careful not to let it's body touch the moist skin of the giant. Toads were bad about secreting toxins, even if they didn't want to.

He looked at his son, mind racing with the images of what could have been. Using the hand he had held the boy with, he forced chakra into his fingertips and slowly began to 'carve' the seal into the child.

Through the new-born's cries of pain, he was somewhat glad it's eyes hadn't opened yet. 'Seeing death incarnate probably wouldn't be good for his health.' thought Minato with a gentle smile.

"Son," he said, "I know you'll hate me for this; and I don't blame you. But if you can understand what I say to you now, understand that I will always love you... even in death." he choked back a sob as he continued, smile firmly in place, "Find something worth protecting son, as I know you will. Protect this precious thing, be it person or not, and grow strong for the both of us... please."

It was with that said that the God of Death, Shinigami, thrust his ethereal arms both into the Kyuubi, and the Yondaime. It was but an instant later that both fell dead, the sealing complete.

Or so Minato had thought. He had forgotten something important when he designed this technique, something crucial that could have cost the village had he called upon anyone else to aid him. As it were, the Death God was not one to take the wish of a dying man lightly, and finished the seal himself.

What the man had missed... was the allowance of reincarnation. With the soul of his former life unbound, the blond-haired child opened it's eyes. His soft, golden eyes.

Dhaos knew not why he was once again given flesh, but he knew at least somewhat that his incarnation's father had sacrificed himself to save his village. He sighed softly, the act coming out as more of a gurgle, as both toad, man, and beast disappeared. He really had to figure out why that happened.

He was only vaguely aware of a white-haired man catching him as he fell from his place atop the disappearing toad, his body having given out on him.

Later, the Sandaime would pass the law that kept others from speaking of the demon, it was even later that he would realize it hadn't done any good at all. For now however, the old man allowed the child to rest until he could determine where to place it. The news of what was within the child had spread surprisingly fast, and it was all he could do to prevent his premature death.

* * *

A/N: Let me know what you think, Naruto won't be too overpowered in this one, just stronger than normal. Other than that, I hope you enjoy it! 


	2. Chapter 2

Title – Another life. Another chance.

By - Wolyafa

Summary – Naruto isn't an idiot. In fact, he isn't what most people think he is. Is there a reason for this? Vague Tales of Phantasia/Naruto crossover.

Disclaimer - I own neither Naruto nor Tales of Phantasia.

Quick A/N:Gawd, I need a beta, I've reuploaded this chapter 5 times because of mistakes.

* * *

Naruto, now six-years-old, had grown into an interesting child to say the least. The boy was kind in the face of hatred, calm in a panic, but most importantly… mischievous to a fault. 

Yes, Naruto was quite the prankster, with stealth skills that rivaled a low-chuunin, and ridiculous escape plans that seemed to always work in spite of this. He had only joined the academy that very year, but having learned he could move faster by pumping something called 'chakra' into his legs, his ability to cause trouble had easily tripled.

He wasn't particularly smart, having had no one to teach him the basics at 'home' or otherwise, but he wasn't completely in the dark. In fact, he was talking to his best friend right now, although you'd never know it to look at him.

'You should pay attention to your teacher..' Was what the calm voice in his head said as he stayed lost in his thoughts. Naruto had one asked his Gramps the purpose of this voice, and if he had one too, the reply had come after an uncomfortable silence, not that he understood what an 'uncomfortable silence' was.

The Sandaime had asked gently if he could see his seal, to which the young boy complied. After seeing nothing wrong with it in spite of the changes the Yondaime had placed on it on the fly (because it had a few more seals than what was in the Dead Demon Seal's original sketches, the Sandaime merely thought his successor had placed more on it, rather than the Death God), he had asked Naruto what the voice sounded like..

"It sounds familiar." The boy had said after a moment of thought, "Like it's me, and I'm it!"

His Gramps had told him afterwards to be cautious of the voice, as he did not know if it were the Kyuubi or not.

Yes, the boy knew of the Kyuubi. The voice had shown him memories of the thing and subsequently the words of his father in the process. He had taken it hard at first, but after being explained by his Gramps why it was done shortly before his seal had been checked about the voice, he had accepted with all his tiny heart that his father had done the right thing.

He had vowed that day that he would find out if Konoha were truly precious to him. Shortly after declaring this to the Sandaime, he had been enrolled into the Ninja Academy. He hadn't known much at first, but with the help of the gentle voice in his head, he was able to not only learn to read, but somewhat understand his other subjects as well.

Most of his teachers had not been pleased that he could keep up. His big brother Iruka, and the teaching assistant Mizuki had been proud of him, or so they said. His voice, who had earlier labeled itself as his conscience, had told him he approved of Iruka. It's opinion had yet to be spoken on Mizuki, which bothered Naruto somewhat. He eventually took it in stride.

"—and that's why the Shodaime had; Naruto pay attention!" Said boy vaguely recognized the form of a chalkboard eraser sailing at his head before his was struck in-between the eyes.

Shaking the dizziness from his eyes, Naruto returned his attention to today's topic. It wasn't that he didn't pay attention, no, it was that he already knew most of this. He hadn't had anything other than pranks and reading to do, so he always read ahead in his books so he wouldn't be caught off-guard by some of the meaner teacher's questions.

Iruka had said, shortly after testing the boy's knowledge to see if he were lying, to at least pretend to be paying attention. If anything, it was good Ninja practice, 'fooling your enemies' and whatnot. He chuckled at his own joke, the likes of which had gone over Naruto's head. It wasn't completely lost however, at he had immediately set to learning the subtle art of not paying attention properly, and could fool all but Iruka himself; he-who-loved-his-job.

Tossing the eraser back to Iruka, Naruto waited patiently for class to end. He wasn't very good at being patient, but Sandaime had somewhat literally smacked it into his thick skull, alongside his conscience, that he needed to learn how to wait if he were going to do anything stealthy at all.

It had been about this time, as he reminisced about his short past that Iruka had called for recess. Unlike the other teachers, Iruka gave recess right before class let out completely for the day. This was both a blessing and a curse for some; a blessing because it was a good way to unwind, and a curse because it meant there was only lunch-break during the day itself.

Naruto reserved his opinion, and went about kicking a training post. The voice had told him not to use his arms too much aside from just strengthening them, and he had listened. When questioned by his big brother, Naruto had told him as much. Iruka was surprised to find out about the voice and had likewise told Naruto to be 'wary' of it; he didn't want to lose his little brother. He later had to look up the word later.

Naruto had grinned once he read the definition. He enjoyed having someone care for him.

* * *

Aside from the mundane parts of school, Naruto had learned other things as well. Once a week, twice at most, the voice had him go out into the woods, rest against a large tree, and meditate. 

At first he wasn't sure of the point of this, but after a year-and-a-half of doing this, he began to feel… something. The voice had told him it was Mana, something he would be using a lot of.

The training had jumped to once a day after this.

Sure enough, under the guidance of his conscience and sheer will-power, he had learned to communicate with this energy. The first thing he had learned was that in exchange for some chakra, he could 'ask' the Mana to shield him from weapons. His voice had given him a fierce scolding when had tried to mold the energy like his chakra. It had said that Mana was sentient, and to force it was no better than enslaving it.

Naruto was shocked, and had spent a day apologizing to the energy. He assumed it had accepted because afterwards it had been easier to work with.

The voice had told him protecting his body was as far as he would ever get with Mana, seeing as he was human. Naruto had questioned what he meant, and had been told about elves in return. Naruto made a silent vow to meet an elf.

The voice had told him that some day he would become so in-tune with this spiritual energy that he could become completely immune to any weapon that wasn't chakra-enhanced, and even some jutsu. This meant both very little and a lot in Naruto's mind. Little, because anyone worth their salt could infuse chakra with their weapons; or so he had been told, but a lot, because most things such as shuriken and kunai, once thrown, would lose the edge they had, even when in-laced with chakra. The prospect of shrugging off a jutsu was also quite nice.

To this day, he was unable to be hurt by the villager's beer bottles, knives and such that they attacked him with. He wisely pretended to receive damage, but had managed to avoid the beatings he had received in the past by simply not recoiling when hit.

It was a godsend, and he had offered up a good portion of his chakra in thanks for the ability. He had been told that human chakra was so potent that wildlife could flourish even if very little was offered. After learning this, he had worked with the voice and managed to have a constant stream of chakra entering the wildlife around him. He noticed a few days later his ability to negate damage had increased.

It had gone on like this for a long while, or so Naruto thought. His chakra control had increased significantly, and his relation with wildlife had been at an all-time high for him. Even Shino's insects were oftentimes landing on him, much to Shino's chagrin. He had to learn not to freak out when things landed on him, or otherwise, it wouldn't do well to offend something or someone.

Half-way into his first year, he heard about Hyuuga Hinata's abduction attempt. To say he had been angry was an understatement. He wasn't naïve enough to not notice the girl's affection for him; hell he thought she was cute in a weird stalker kind of way. The idea that she was almost lost to an enemy country had put him on the edge. Quite often, he had been seen walking with her afterwards, trying to cheer her up. She was grateful for this, and he had made his second friend.

She was ecstatic.

His first friend had been Aburame Shino, who had questioned him about the affect he had on his insects; the likes of which had merely told him the boy felt like home. Naruto had told him a heavily edited version of his connection with the environment. Shino had become more tolerant of him after that, and had soon become his friend.

He never really had the nerve to become friends with anyone else, until that day.

* * *

That day, not long ago, he had gained an obsession. A crush to end all crushes even! This came in the form of one Haruno Sakura. It seemed like one day she had entered the classroom and emitted a wave of authority, one of confidence and perfection; or so thought Naruto. 

He had immediately tried to become friends with the pink-haired Valkyrie, but the girl had shot him down immediately, calling him a monster (as her parents had taught her to do so), and bashing him with her fist before walking over to her own crush, Uchiha Sasuke.

Several of these bashings later, and seeing the crushed look on Hinata's face, he sighed in recognition and let it go. He could see where he wasn't wanted.

That didn't stop him from tormenting Sasuke though.

Yes; he enjoyed doing that. From the moment he laid eyes on the boy, he knew he had found his eternal rival, a rival not unlike what he had seen between the green and cyclopean Jounin who had escorted him to Hokage's office after one of his pranks.

He made yet another vow to learn that technique; that 'One-thousand years of pain'. Oh yes, he would learn it, he would change it to be his own, and he would become that much more of a badass.

On the topic of his own rival however, he had shocked the living daylights out of the boy on several occasions. Iruka had often placed them sparring together because of their 'unique chemistry', he had called it. In spite of only using his arms to block, and his hands to use Jutsu, Naruto had proven to be quite an opponent for the brooding boy.

0oo0o Ninja Art; Flashback Technique! o0oo0

"Come on dope, you'll never stand up to me!" taunted the brooding boy, he was enjoying himself.

"You'd be surprised bastard, I'm not as weak as you'd think."

"If you two are done bickering, you'd better start. You're wasting time."

They both spared Iruka a glance before darting towards one another.

Upon meeting, Sasuke had thrown a fist towards Naruto's chest in an attempt to stun him. Using his chakra-induced speed however, Naruto had leaned back to avoid the punch, and gone full circle into a handstand, kicking at Sasuke's face before using his arms to leap into the air. He had missed of course, and his rival had immediately jumped after him, taking the hint to enhance his abilities with his own chakra.

Airborne, Naruto had nowhere to dodge as Sasuke slipped right past his defense and planted a chakra enhanced punch right into his face. Imagine the look of surprise on Sasuke's face when not only was Naruto not affected by a punch that could splinter a training post (a feat the boy was very proud of), but when Naruto countered by wrapping his legs around his waist, and without losing any momentum, pivoting in such a way as to pile-drive him head-first into the ground. Pictures just weren't enough.

Iruka had face-palmed at the act before he helped Sasuke up, Naruto had leaped away upon impact "Naruto, we're ninja, not street fighters, try to have a tad more 'efficient' and a lot less 'flashy', regardless of the end results."

He had the grace to look sheepish as Sasuke's fan girls shouted curses at him for hurting their precious idol.

0oo0o Ninja Art; Flashback End! o0oo0

To this day, they had been in 50 sparring matches. After that first fight, Sasuke had become a lot more 'cheap' when fighting, but so had Naruto. The duck-haired boy's fangirls took great delight in holding Sasuke's two wins over Naruto's head. Naruto seethed at the thought.

About a year later, the Uchiha clan had been slaughtered. Sasuke had become even more focused on fighting and training with not just Naruto, but everyone he thought was strong yet still within his reason to beat. It would be 2 years until Naruto passed the Genin exam early, and another 2 before he was put on a Genin team. The Sandaime had said he should stay with children his own age. Naruto had reluctantly agreed, and his headband was put up for him.

It would be when Naruto 'officially' passed, that Mizuki would trick him into stealing the forbidden scroll. It would be that very day that Naruto would stabilize his reputation as Konoha's number one most surprising Ninja.

That day, Naruto would become an adult.

* * *

A/N: Dhaos may have been reincarnated, but it's not 'his' body. Naruto is still there, and just as awesome as ever. No, you'll see what I have in store for the two of them in the next chapter, where thankfully the past-tense will go away. Yay! 


End file.
